Altars and Icons: Sacred Spaces in Everyday Life

Rating:
Summary: Fairly Nice Little Book
Review: Fun to look at the altars photographed for the book, but majority of them have Southwest/Hispanic feeling, which seems to infer that that's the only style of altar around. Not so. Many people are building/assembling altars with a wide range of materials. Author could have done a lot more with her topic by showing a wider variety of altars.

Rating:
Summary: Nice, but needed a broader perspecitve
Review: I bought this book for a friend for Christmas, as we are both hoarders of odd objects and possess casual versions of "altars" in our respective homes. I found the photography to be very attractive and the overall idea of the book to be sound (which was why I purchased it as a gift), but I wish the creator(s) had branched out a bit from the idea of altars bound to Christian ideas; there seemed to be many. I think that a global approach would have made this book meatier and more enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Nice, but needed a broader perspecitve
Review: I bought this book for a friend for Christmas, as we are both hoarders of odd objects and possess casual versions of "altars" in our respective homes. I found the photography to be very attractive and the overall idea of the book to be sound (which was why I purchased it as a gift), but I wish the creator(s) had branched out a bit from the idea of altars bound to Christian ideas; there seemed to be many. I think that a global approach would have made this book meatier and more enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: A graceful, thoughtful look at how we remember.
Review: What a wonderful book. Jean McMann's luminous photographs, paired with her subjects' words, combined to create an enlightening, moving experience for me. I enjoyed the many different kinds of stories and shrines, from the simple little computer shrine, to a more elaborate wedding mantle, to the very moving shrines to deceased loved ones and beloved pets. This book makes me realize that creating concrete ways to remember and commemorate important events and people is a natural, almost involuntary part of human nature. We create shrines, big and small, all the time without realizing it. The simple way we arrange family photos on our living room mantle, the way we arrange a vase of flowers next to a candle next to a souvenir from a meaningful trip...that's a shrine. The realization of this has helped to bring spirituality and grace into my life.